K Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad Oct 10, 2009, 00:13 IST
For the first time in almost six months after it was acquired by Tech Mahindra, Satyam Computer Services (now rebranded as Mahindra Satyam) will hire 130 people from outside the company.
In June this year, Satyam had initiated a ‘virtual pool programme’ (VPP) for close to 10,000 surplus employees, that allowed ‘excess’ talent pool in India to be retained, albeit at a reduced pay for a defined period of four to six months. Some of these employees were later “called back to work” with full wages.
“We got an approval for external hiring on October 4. These are speciality skills, which are not there in the virtual pool and are not trainable internally. These junior- and middle-level hirings will largely be from India. Besides, we will be hiring one or two senior level people from the market for select areas,” the company’s chief people and marketing officer, Hari Thalapalli, told Business Standard.
He, however, did not disclose the roles to be assigned to these seniors it plans to hire. The company currently has around 34,000 staffers globally, and is working towards shaking off the bad image its disgraced founder, Ramalinga Raju, had left it with.
Thalapalli said the company, in mid-September, had conducted a first-ever customer forum in Europe, wherein 50 of its key customers participated. “We have done whatever is required to regain our customer confidence and now there are no more customer losses happening. Besides, the five-year SAP contract with global pharmaceutical major GlaxoSmithKline and the recent three-year extension of contract by General Electric, we recently got three to four more customers whom we had lost earlier. All these are $30-40 million per year contracts in the manufacturing space, which were extended for three more years,” he said.
Mahindra Satyam lost 200-250 client companies after the confession by founder Ramalinga Raju that he had cooked the company’s books for several years. Today, the company has 400 customers globally.
“We have so far won 30 new logos, most of them single-digit million dollar contracts, and 15 new orders in Oracle implementation in 15 weeks. There is a complete strategy that has been laid out to regain lost contracts and we are working towards it,” Thalapalli said.
On the cultural side and people-related issues, he said the company had recently initiated employee connect programmes, including one in which the chief executive officer, C P Gurnani, walks across different floors and talks to people and listens to their issues.
“We recently did something called ‘Shadow Board’, typically for associates (staffers) who have 2-6 years of work experience. We have selected 8-10 people who act as board members, who will identify problems and bring forth unconventional ways of resolving the problems – including how to procure new business and rebuild brand. Clearly, now there is a greater amount of connect between the leadership and associates than earlier,” he added.
Ultimately the mahindras have come in with a business intent and they started doing whatever they could to ensure that the company turns around and starts delivering to the bottom line of the new entity called mahindra satyam. But in this process, the business managers including the top guys have resorted to a series of lies and what they have given is just a little bit of comfort to employees before firing them. I think they should stop the media propoganda and stick to their ethics system if they have any. Mahindra can now start a great business of selling sugar coated poison pills :-) with the experience they have with Satyam ... hehe.. Every sacrificial goat has its story to tell but ultimately what matters is whether the gods are pleased, the MAHINDRAs that are!!!
The VPP program is another scam in itself. There are many associates in VPP who lost projects and become non-billable due to Jan 7 events. There is a group in Satyam called "Service Offering". They are non-billable for almost the time the group started. Many of them are not under VPP. Also "telugu" factor played a great game in VPP selection. Including Hari there are many people to be removed further from Satyam to cleanse the organisation further.
Posted by: Kantha
October 14 , 2009, 12:24 IST
Mr. Hari is the root cause of excess employees, he did not give good career counselling, while he recruited people even during good days of Satyam. When new management came over, he just took numbers, and cut off 10,000 people, as per his / his team's whims. He needs to STEP DOWN, if he is a thorough professional, taking responsibility of excess staff that he recruted last 10 years.
So, Mr. Hari - your attempts for rebranding is good....but consider the VPP employees - there are talented ones, there...this need not be conscience based, but with a business angle itself....when you get it at home, why invest time, money, effort elsewhere, just to cover up pride. CP has a great vision, am sure you would be a messenger and example to that vision.....am an admirer of TechM
It is like, we have done a great program of virtual bench, so we stick by it.....but we need skilled employees, our pride doesnt permit, to take virtual people back. Then the question, why put them there earlier arises. The actual TRUTH is that many people are quitting Satyam, now that the market is picking up and that too after taking the promotion and hike...Smart and lucky ones, leave the company. But they want to show a different face to the world. Mr. Hari is all about, brand rebuilding now...and not really a people building spree....if CP Gurnani is truly holding values that he speaks, always, sure will bring some good and honest change to all of this....
Its true, that the Resumes of VPP employees are not even scanned, because they have Done it, they want to hide their faults and goof-ups in slaughtering these employees. And now they are talking of fresh recruitment ?? Its also an option to scan these resumes, before doing anything....is the Management hearing at all ???
Its true, that the Resumes of VPP employees are not even scanned, because they have Done it, they want to hide their faults and goof-ups in slaughtering these employees. And now they are talking of fresh recruitment ?? Its also an option to scan these resumes, before doing anything....is the Management hearing at all ???
As i am the one employee of satyam ,and i am the one of the person placed in VPP,and one has to know the truth about Mahindra Satyam is that They are not considering VPP employess For any requirement as they got in they are offically black mailing Us like IF I am selected for any technical requirements they are saying we gonna give only 1.4 package with one year bond If u r interested you can come into company or else Quit your self ..as i am having previous package as 2.8 ..just imagine how they are treating Us..please do some thing for our sake ....
This appears to be a brand building exercise rather than any serious attempt to really recruit.
I am a Satyam employee, with 20 years of experience in IT, currently on VPP and scheduled to exit by end of October. To date (in the last 3 months), the company has not bothered to even ask for our resumes, understand what our skills are. Nor have they published a list of 'openings' that they let us apply for, so that they can select qualified personnel back in.
I wish the media does some real reporting, rather than lap up everything the company wants them to publish!
Posted by: Amit
October 14 , 2009, 11:27 IST
i agree with above statements, Company has not bothered to lookinto the profiles... at all.. I am also in VPP and only earning member of the family... we are expecting a kid by the end of jan. and my dad is retired and i have a housing loan too.. Just for name sake company had informed employees will be trained and taken back... when i enquired for training... we dont have such kind of programs now...
When buble had bursted for Satyam in jan 08 i was one of the employee who said i can work without pay for 3 months as i was very fond of Satyam brand... during feb month i got calls form the companies for the job oppening but i rejected those calls becasue unity was really required.. When things got stabled we were kicked out of the company... So i have learnt a lesson in my life.. "Fall in Love with your work but Never fall in love your company becuase you never know when your company will stop loving you"
Content Guide
